Thanks for the reviews, KingBrian! I apologize for not being around here, until now, to read them. You are a very good reviewer, and I have enjoyed reading all your comments on everyone's beers.

To answer your question about the Argentine Gold, that batch was made with U.S. Hallertau and does lack a bit of lemongrass that the Argentine Cascades have. I also screwed up my protein rest, which explains why the head retention is not as good as the head formation. Mea culpa!

I agree that the Indian Summer needs more sweetness, too. I dried this batch out a bit, just to play around, and I used the Pacific Ale yeast. I'm going back to the California V yeast, which emphasizes malt a bit more.

Again, thanks!

TL (eagerly awaiting 9/9 to crack open some barleywine)

__________________Beer is good for anything from hot dogs to heartache.

Nice aroma of sugar, plums, and spice. Deep toffee backbone with vanilla, spice, and ginger flavors. Smooth finish which, despite the sweetness, seemed to be well balanced and clean. Gorgeous deep red color, this beer could be a poster model.

Spiced beers aren't my favorite, but this one beats the pants off of 90%+ of the ones I have tried. Overall I think this is a great holiday ale.

Appearance
Very dark with some ruby highlights. Full tan head dissipated quickly.

Flavor
Malty, roasty. Some fruitiness. Nice bitterness bite. The alcohol is well hidden. Some other flavors I cant quite identify.

Mouthfeel
Medium bodied. Fairly high carbonation.

Overall
Great beer. I loves me some porters and stouts. I will have to steal your recipe and compare it to mine. It has none of the overwhelming properties of some of the porters I have tasted. Well balanced and well made. Thanks for sharing.

Overall
Nice beer. Maybe a bit high on the DMS and a little low on bitterness. Boil longer and maybe add a bit more hops? I dont have much experience with this style so dont put too much weight on my review.

If anyone wants to try of your own a little early(or if you received one from me, then one of mine), on August 15th my best friend(40+years) and I will be celebrating our 50th birthdays

We will be raising a toast with the barleywine at 8pm eastern if you would like to virtually join us

I tried one of mine last night. The flavor is starting to come together well. Not as harsh as the last one I tried about a month and a half ago. I have one chilled and will toast your birthday on Sat. I'll be 50 in a year and a half also, damn a half century old

Doog_Si_Reeb was kind enough to provide 2 of his red ryes in the swap package. I'm enjoying the second of them right now and decided to take a picture since my original review didn't include one. I'll also add this to the original review. Doog, I'd really like to see the recipe, the chocolate milk mix/chocolate whey protein powder flavor is again jumping out and I'd like to see what it's coming from. I'm quite enjoying it right now, and interested to see if your other recipients note the chocolate flavor in their reviews!

Admittedly, I've been a slacker and just stumbled on this thread. Thanks for the reviews KingBrian!

When I made that brew, I boiled off more water than I intended so it came out with a much higher OG than intended. That kind of offset the intended BU:OG ratio. Was supposed to be 1.048 but came out at 1.064.

I ended up really liking the final product, but I agree that it could use some more hop bitterness to make it tastier.